AFP - Australia said it was "deeply disappointed" after a fleet of Japanese whaling ships set out to kill hundreds of the giant ocean mammals on their annual hunt.

AFP - The legendary French movie star turned animal rights campaigner Brigitte Bardot has written to Nepal's president urging him to stop a mass animal sacrifice from going ahead next week.

LiveScience.com - That tuna in your sushi might be an endangered species, a new study finds.

AFP - Japanese whaling ships left port Thursday for Antarctic waters for their annual hunt of the ocean giants, Greenpeace said, setting the stage for high-seas confrontations with anti-whaling activists.

AP - A 2-year-old panda who charmed his way into the hearts of Austrians is headed to China.

AFP - Wildlife experts in Indian-controlled Kashmir have fitted black bears with satellite-tracking collars to study their behaviour and help conserve the endangered animals, officials said Wednesday.

AFP - Consumer campaigns to protect threatened fish species have failed, researchers warned Tuesday in a report underscoring the need for alternative ways to save threatened marine species.

AP - Out of 6,300 suggestions, San Diego Zoo managers have chosen a name for a baby panda born this summer.

Reuters - More than six years after the U.S. invasion left Iraq's main zoo a wasteland of starving animals and deserted cages, the park in central Baghdad is enjoying a vigorous revival and needs to grow.

AP - Sweeping from lush mountain rain forests to pristine beaches, a corridor of land protected by Puerto Rico's last governor hosts dozens of rare and endangered species and was championed by celebrities who helped fight off resort proposals.

AFP - Brigitte Bardot, one-time French screen goddess turned animal rights activist, wants the European Union to institute a "Vegetarian Day" as part of the battle against global warming.

AFP - An Australian scientist has paid an unusual tribute to late conservation star Steve Irwin by naming a rare species of snail "crikey steveirwini".

AFP - Fu Long the panda, Europe's first to be conceived naturally while in captivity, is to leave his home town of Vienna for China next week, the Schoenbrunn Zoo in the Austrian capital said Thursday.

AFP - Low-lying and impoverished Asian coastal cities such as Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta are vulnerable to "brutal" damage from climate change without global action, environmental group WWF warned Thursday.

AFP - Nearly 40 years after it was pushed to the edge of extinction by pesticide use, habitat loss and hunting, the brown pelican was Wednesday taken off the endangered species list, US officials said.

AP - Much like its death-defying dives for fish, the brown pelican has resurfaced after plummeting to the brink of extinction.